3 One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off. Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants with you and go look for the donkeys.” 4 Saul and his servant went through the hill country of Ephraimo and then through the region of Shalishah,p but they didn’t find them. They went through the region of Shaalimq—nothing. Then they went through the Benjaminite region but still didn’t find them.

5 When they came to the land of Zuph,r Saul said to the servant who was with him, “Come on, let’s go back, or my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and start worrying about us.”s

6 “Look,” the servant said, “there’s a man of Godt in this city who is highly respected; everything he says is sure to come true.u Let’s go there now. Maybe he’ll tell us which way we should go.”v

7 “Suppose we do go,” Saul said to his servant, “what do we take the man? The food from our packs is gone, and there’s no gift to take to the man of God.w What do we have?”

8 The servant answered Saul, “Here, I have a littleE silver. I’ll give it to the man of God, and he will tell us which way we should go.”

9 Formerly in Israel, a man who was going to inquire of God would say, “Come, let’s go to the seer,” for the prophet of today was formerly called the seer.x

10 “Good,” Saul replied to his servant. “Come on, let’s go.” So they went to the city where the man of God was.